Math Mammoth ~ TOS Review

I have a serious aversion to math. I was just never good at it as a child and even worse I think sometimes as an adult. Homeschooling my children has taught me far more math than I ever thought possible. I understand things that would stump me BHS (Before HomeSchooling).
I have 2 boys, 9 and 16, the 16 y/o is pretty good and math or seemed to be while he was in public school but really doesn’t care for it while my 9 year old son is a math fiend and wants to do math all the time. My daughter is 2 1/2 and undecided as of yet.

Reviewing mathy things is always a lot of fun here since I enjoy the excitement my kids have for learning this subject, so I was thrilled to receive Math Mammoth.

SAT Prep Course~TOS Review

College Prep Genius DVD SET

“There is no need to spend a fortune on SAT prep. College Prep Genius is designed to help students master the strategies behind the test and taking students step by step through each section of the SAT [Critical Reading, Math, Writing,] and gives them a plan for success for each question type. 
This DVD covers all three sections of the SAT & PSAT/NMSQT and is a thorough review of the College Prep Genius curriculum.”
While watching the 12 lessons on the DVD the workbook walks the students through each lesson. The companion text gives a thorough breakdown of each lesson. You will, however, need to download a homework packet and there are no actual SAT tests are included.

Keyboard Town Pals ~ TOS Review

Being one of those homeschoolers I feel the need to teach my children how to type. It may just be because I know how to type and hate having to type for others because I can do it faster. Seems like cheating to me!
So that being said, by the time my children graduate our school they will have the skills to succeed in college because the ability to type is so necessary then.  I had some trouble deciding what curriculum we would be using to do our keyboarding lessons since I had a 9th, 4th, and PK students. My oldest is a decent typist but just needed to increase his speed so that left the younger two. As a TOS Crew member I had the chance to review Keyboard Town Pals, an online/cd-rom keyboarding course geared toward children ages 6-12. Hoo-rah we were saved!

Week 8 ~ HOD WIR

Using Heart of Dakota has been such and enormous blessing to our family yet lately I have been wondering if I am not pushing my children enough. I have family who are worried because my 9 y/o son does not know his multiplication tables and others who think my oldest in high school should be doing less hands on and more book work. That maybe I should have my 4th grader doing extensions in his curriculum even though he is only a year and a half away from loathing reading and just beginning to bloom with books. I even thought that maybe another curriculum may be better for my oldest *GASP*!

Imagination Station Books 5 & 6 ~ Review AND GIVEAWAY!!!

I have been so happy with C-man’s reading ability, from just a year ago he has really taken a shine to reading just about everything. His current favorite series of books is Adventures In Odyssey’s The Imagination Station. We have recently received books 5 and 6 and he again devoured them in no time.
Book 5 Showdown with the Shepherd and Book 6 Problems in Plymouth are the newest books in the series with at least six more titles planned, including book 7, Secret of the Prince’s Tomb, due out in January of 2012 and book 8 in May 2012.

Bower Books ~ TOS Review

The teen years, dating, courting, marriage all words that strike fear into a mother’s heart. Alright maybe not all mothers but certainly mine. I have a teenage boy and while my husband and I wish for him to keep his relationships godly and court, he has other family that do not follow the Lord, so I know our influence only goes so far. My son has expressed interest in girls recently so I was so thrilled when we got a copy of The Person I Marry from Bower Family Books.

Memoria Press Classical Phonics ~ TOS Review

We are only in our 3rd official year of homeschooling and my daughter is going to be the first of our children that I will be teaching from the very beginning. To say I am nervous is an understatement. I have been thinking about which approach to use to teach her and which curriculum will work for us for a few months now and even though she isn’t yet 3 I know she is slowly getting more interested in her letters, words and sounds. I don’t want to push but want to take advantage of her interest.



What I am looking for is something very laid back and simple. After looking at Memoria Press’s Classical Phonics and First Start Reading program I think it is just what I have been looking for. Classical Phonics is a simple little book based on a 1913 text, Word Mastery, used to teach phonics. Since we use Charlotte Mason methods in our homeschool the word family lists work perfectly for our children’s lessons. Starting with the alphabet and progressing through the various phonetic lessons, Classical Phonics is a handy compendium for students to use as a review of all the phonics learned in K-2.

Tot Swap ~ Busy Bag Swap

I recently participated in an awesome swap. If you have never been involved in a swap they are the best way to get new items or ideas for a minimal amount of time and money. Depending on the theme you create a project for a set number of participants and mail it to the swap organizer who then divides all the goodies up and sends them out to the members of the swap so everyone gets one of each item that was sent in.

So I was part of my first swap. It was a toddler busy bag swap, creating fun activities for pre-k ages. My daughter is 31 months old and has been begging to do school with her big brothers which generally results in a messy house/schoolroom. I was so excited to see what we would get, but I was not even remotely prepared for D’s reaction when the box came.

She was so excited and wanted to dig right in to EVERYTHING!

I created 10 sensory bags that the child matches items by feeling them. In return I received 3 different sized button snakes, a cupcake counting game, 2 different fishing games, a bead matching activity, lacing shape activity, Build-A-Frog, and a pompom tweezing activity.

 

I am excited to have so many neat things for my daughter learn and play with. She is showing me so many things she already knows and it just amazes me how fast she is picking things up. I can’t wait to sign up for my next swap!

Mandy

Wits and Wagers ~ TOS Review

Please visit The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew by clicking the above link for more awesome homeschooler reviews of this product.

We decided years ago to just accept the facts. We are a gaming family. We have a weekly tradition of playing some kind of role playing game or other board game. Every week we pick a fun game and try to beat the pants off each other. What we usually avoid playing are trivia type games since the littles are at a disadvantage.

Imagine my surprise when we received NorthStar Games Wits and Wagers Family game, a new twist on trivia based games. Geared for ages 8+ and 3-10 players (we have used only 2 players with no problem), each player or team answers one of 300 trivia questions.  Instead of getting the answer right or wrong you bet on whose answer is closest to correct without going over, using cute wooden people shaped pieces called Meeples. This has made it so much more fun for my family. It is less about the trivia answer and more about guessing who has the right answer so it is very relaxed and fun for the younger players.

This is one of our new favorite games, the dry erase component is a huge draw for my youngest and my 9 year old doesn’t feel like everyone else knows things he does not. I love that the trivia questions are more of an educational type than useless information normally found with typical trivia games. Each answer is in the form of a number and the card gives more information with the answer which is kind of nice for children like mine who always like to know who, what, where, when, why things are the way they are.

Sold in various national retailers go Here to find the nearest location or purchase through Amazon.com. Prices vary according to retailers.

Disclaimer: As a TOS Crew reviewer I received a copy of the above product in exchange for my honest opinion.

Mandy

Week In Review ~ Unit 7

We had a short week last week since I had a couple appointments, so we are still finishing up Unit 7 in Bigger but I managed to remember to take a couple shots of the children hard at work. Industriousness is the theme this week and they are really taking it to heart.

To aid my oldest in completing all his subjects I came up with a very simple schedule using the time chart cards I made here. I tweaked it a bit and made it more portable since he does his work where ever he is most comfortable. He was having a problem remembering to actually check for subjects that are not done everyday. I will be adding that post soon along with some more reviews!!!

This pregnancy is harder on me than any of my others so I am letting that dictate our speed but we are generally doing about 4 1/2 hours for Bigger and 6 for CTC plus. My tot received a package of Busy Bags last week as part of a swap I participated in and we are having a blast with them. I will post all of those later also. Hope your school days are now in full swing and enjoyable.

Bigger

Science & Art

 

 

 

 

Math

 

 

 

 

 

History

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cursive

 

 

 

 

CTC

Math

 

 

 

 

 

History Project

 

 

 

 

 

History Notebook

 

 

 

 

 

Extension Narrations

 

 

I really need to get better and covering my 16 year old’s work but he is usually reading in some hidey hole or does his projects when I am otherwise occupied and I miss it.

Tot School

I have not really began any kind of structured learning with D as she is only 31 months old. It is still mainly playing for her but she does ask to do certain things and so I will have things out for her but she usually asks for something I have out of sight (which isn’t much since we have no real storage here).  This past week it was mostly things from our swap, her favorite being the sticky foam letters and shapes.

This is a hand drawn do a dot with those decorative stones (they are flat on one side) she loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

Intense art/drawing with erasable pencils

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practicing color sorting

 

 

 

 

Matching bead colors

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magnetic alphabet book, she is a little young for this books real purpose which is spelling but she has fun with all the magnetic letter tiles.

 

 

 

 

 

One to one correspondence

 

 

 

 

Fav of the week!

 

 

Apparently my computer was in trouble and needed help.

And here is a - just because she’s starting to enjoy having her picture taken since she used to hide from the camera – shot.

Mandy